How to generate code_128 barcode for string with Barby - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm currently using Barby gem with wrapper gem has_barcode to generate a bar code for a string I have : j5xvvcz.
Gemfile gems (mostly for those who are new to this solution)
#for barcode generation
gem "barby", "~> 0.5.0"
gem "has_barcode", "~> 0.2.0"
gem "rqrcode", "~> 0.4.2" #for qr code support
Code i have in my model
include HasBarcode
has_barcode :barcode,
:outputter => :svg,
:type => :code_93,
:value => Proc.new { |p| "#{p.number}" }
Where i render it to screen:
If I try to generate a qr_code or a code_93, it all works, but nor code_128 or code_39 work, getting a data not valid message.
My worries is that code_93 won't get recognized in some devices since it seems it is not so widely adopted (from what i read here 128 would be the best solution for this)
This seems to be something i might be doing wrong, since the code is valid for code_128 aparently as i tested it here.
Anyone knows what might be wrong with my approach?

Answer 1

Apparently mode 'A' for code_128 doesn't suit for smallcaps with Barby.
So i had to had mode B working.
Current published gem version of has_barcode forces mode 'A', so I added a little "home-patch", while adding a suggestion to github.
Here is my final has_barcode.rb file :
require "rubygems"
require "i18n"
require "active_support"
require "active_support/hash_with_indifferent_access.rb"
require "active_support/inflector.rb"
require "barby"
require "has_barcode/configuration"
module HasBarcode
def self.included(base)
base.send(:extend, ClassMethods)
end
module ClassMethods
def has_barcode(*args)
options = args.extract_options!
##barcode_configurations ||= {}
##barcode_configurations[args.first] = HasBarcode::Configuration.new(options)
define_method args.first do
if options[:type] == :code_128
##barcode_configurations[args.first].barcode_class.new(options[:value].call(self), options[:code128])
else
##barcode_configurations[args.first].barcode_class.new(options[:value].call(self))
end
end
define_method "#{args.first}_data" do |opts|
if opts
send(args.first).send("to_#{options[:outputter]}", opts)
else
send(args.first).send("to_#{options[:outputter]}")
end
end
end
def barcode_configurations
##barcode_configurations
end
end
end
My model :
has_barcode :barcode,
outputter: :svg,
type: :code_128,
code128: 'B',
value: Proc.new { |p| "#{p.number}" }
and my view :
<%= my_model.barcode_data(xdim:2, height:60).html_safe %>
Do notice that at current date (2012-12-05) current gem isn't updated with latest changes that allow to pass outputter arguments like xdim and height.
This answer is based on latest code updates (issue related) and my own suggestion, and can be found here
While this solution isn't embedded into the has_barcode gem, i will be using Barby directly:
In my model added :
def get_barcode(number)
require 'barby'
require 'barby/barcode/qr_code'
require 'barby/outputter/svg_outputter'
barcode = Barby::Code128B.new("#{number}")
barcode.to_svg(xdim:2, height:60)
end
in the view :
<%= my_model.get_barcode(my_model.number).html_safe %>